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8-year-old boy dead after medical emergency at Orleans Wood Elementary School

An eight-year-old boy is dead after a medical emergency at Orleans Wood Elementary School Friday afternoon, according to the school board.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board said emergency responders were called to the school and took the boy to the hospital where he later died.

Neither the school nor board would give details about what happened, but a letter from the school's principal sent to the community called it a "medical emergency."

'It just turned totally quiet'

Rose Lessard has lived directly opposite the Décarie Drive school since 1979 and said she can't remember anything like this happening.

"I just know that the kids were playing on the hill and it sounded like they were having a carnival or some sort, because they were laughing and screaming and everything. And all of a sudden, it just turned totally quiet," she said.

"I looked out my window upstairs and noticed that all the little kids were being taken back in [to the school] quickly."

Lessard said she saw police, paramedics and fire fighters at the school.



"Oh my God, I can't believe it," she said, visibly shaken. "Oh, how sad. How sad."

Marc Neron, Lessard's neighbour, told CBC News he noticed the first responders' flashing lights at around noon on Friday and went outside to see what was going on.

"All I saw [was] the firemen. They were just pumping his chest, and pumping and pumping," said Neron.

"You couldn't see the kid at all, but I saw him on the board when they transferred him to the ambulance. Sad, really sad."

'Shocking and tragic'

School board trustee Keith Penny, who represents the area, told CBC News that the "tight-knit" school was understandably upset by the boy's sudden death.

"I've got kids of my own, so I can understand," Penny said. "It is very shocking and tragic to me as well, and I just want to pass my condolences along to the family and the school community."

The board said a team of psychologists will be at the school on Monday to help students and parents.

Ottawa police said they had no comment on the incident.

Orleans Wood is a junior kindergarten to Grade 3 school with about 205 students.